First of all, being a guest of a Hospitality Center was AWESOME.
There was a meeting place (American Chamber of Commerce) located some 5kms from the autodrome, where you could leave your car and take a van that dropped you right in the entrance of the HC, so there were no worries about parking and crowded line-ups. The Petrobras HC was very nice, there was great food, lots of booze, a simulator (with GP3) and lotsa pretty babes. It was located behind the paddock, with a panoramic view of the back straight and the whole infield. There were are a bunch of monitors showing the official timing and the international TV feed, so you could’t miss any of the action. I was also with a pocket radio, so I got to listen to drivers interviews and all the latest bits real time. The “total F1 experience”
HC pass:
http://sites.uol.com...iteto/race2.jpg
Next to our HC was Toyota’s, so I got to meet McNish. Alan is really “jockey-size” short, and seemed very happy just to be around. The Toyota people were all smiles after Friday practice, when they posted the 3rd best time. After the practice I went to the pits and noticed that the McLaren people were really serious about hiding their stuff after DC posted the fastest lap. You couldn’t see anything there. On the other tip of the road, Toyota was all open and let us take as many pics as we wanted. I also noticed they were called up for scrutineering (sp?) at least a couple of times (maybe the stewards were suspicious of their speed?). RB was showing all his frustration, after spinning twice in the infield right in front of us, obviously he was having a hard time with setup, or just trying too hard. Later I found out he was having TC probs and also a flat tire
but he also said they were in race trim, so that explained the 7th best time. MS spun too in the end of the session and ended up 5th best. I was happy to see Massa outdo Nick and Bernoldi very close to HHF. The tarmac run-off areas seemed to work well, as a few drivers got there and managed to come back. They were all complaning that the track was too dirty. The F3000 guys helped cleaning it in their qualif. IMO Enge was in a league of his own, although he was outqualified by Bourdais. I was impressed by how close they were, with the top 10 drivers within the 1min 27 sec range. Whoever said Haberfeld sucks should have seen him in the pinheirinho curve, he was awesome and ended up 3rd best. Great stuff! view from the HC to the infield:
http://sites.uol.com...iteto/race1.jpg]
On Saturday I moved to another place, the ABN-Amro Bank HC, which was located right above Ferrari/McLaren pits. It was nice watching the action from above, but the glass windows kinda makes you lose the “feel” of the action, as the noise is greatly damped. But this HC had Bernie’s Digital TV feed, so it was nice too check it out for the first time. I missed the RB penalty on Friday, so I was
when they said he was going to lose his best time. Anyway, it was nice too see the Colombian fans partying in the grandstands when the session was over and JPM had got the pole. Before the F3000 race I went back to “my” HC, because it was better to see the action from there. Salo came by the Toyota HC, and I was amused when he said that the curcuit/heat was so tough on the drivers and cars that some would just “break on purpose” because they couldn’t get it to the finish. I couldn’t tell if he was joking. He also said he loved the blind curves and elevation changes of the track. Then Ralf came by. He answered all questions very politely but didn’t waste a second rushing out when it was over, signing no autographs, he almost ran over me on his way out, which left me with the feeling of “what if I had advanced my foot just a little bit…”;) The F3000 race was pretty much what I expected, with Enge making it look easy, while a great scrap developed between Pizzonia and Ricardo Mauricio for 3rd place. Then disaster (or luck) struck and Enge DNFd leaving 4 brazilians to take the flag. It was nice the podium sweep, but I felt sorry for him. :
Inside the HC (Petrobras guy fueling RS´s car) :
http://sites.uol.com...iteto/race3.jpg
Sunday. The warm up was pretty uneventful, that is, until Bernoldi had a suspension prob and crashed heavily in the Senna S, I couldn’t see it from the HC, only the smoke, but I saw on TV when Heidfeld took the medical car’s door, it was weird stuff! After the warm up, Montoya showed up and gave the same kinda PR interview as the others. When asked about the first corner he said: “they are promising heavy penalties for those who step over the line, so we will just have to wait and see what happens”. Well, harsh penalties ok, for MS? guess not.;) Then it was Antonio Pizzonia who came up, and I took the op to wish him good luck in the season and tell him to watch out for Enge, he just said “yep, I know”.
15 mins before formation lap, it was Pelé’s time to do his PR for Petrobras, and he was literally mobbed by the people looking for autograps and pictures. He impressed me with his manner, very polite and friendly, despite being literaly harassed by the posh mob.
Anyway, he left the room (thanks Pele) just as the race was about to start.Interlagos pitlane:
http://sites.uol.com...iteto/race4.jpg
The race itself was very interesting, despite the JPM let down...
As we couldn´t see the front stretch from the HC, I just saw when they (MS and JPM) left the Senna S and went for the back straight. Then we lost the sigh for a few seconds...It was a BIG disapointment seeing the ailing JPM pass by, I was VERY upset by MS´s behaviour when I saw the replay, everybody around us thought the same: MS´s fault. But all this mess was soon forgot when RB started making his way throught the field, each time he passed in front of us he was closer to the front runners, and when he finally passed MS is was a great rush. THEN, of course, came yet another mech failure, the crowd went silent for a while....and the race became a bit boring after that.
I then started paying attention to the Mac x Renault battle. It was nice to find out how much the French team developed, their engine sounded very powerful in the junction, and going uphill the Macs just couldn´t do anything about them for a long while. Young Massa spun right in front of us (again, the paved run off area worked perfectly). Then, at the end we were hoping that RS would be able to catch up and at least try to pass MS, but IMO he just couldn´t get close enough before the final two corners, so that was that....another boring MS victory...:
To sum up, a very enjoyable and eventful weekend, very sunny and hot wheather, with lots of pretty girls and cold beer. I just wished that RB had a little more luck and JPM wasn´t so keen to pick a fight in the first lap, then the result might have been very different.
Next year is already booked!
Interlagos ROCKS!!
I didn't see any...maybe they were in the stands? I only noticed a good deal of colombian flags (much more than brazilian ones).
